1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data storage subsystems, and more particularly to a robotic system and method for identifying data cartridge locations with reduced electromagnetic emissions in a data cartridge library system.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical digital data cartridge handling library includes number of columns of stacked bins containing data cartridges positioned around a centrally located manipulating arm with a cartridge grasping hand which can rotate, translate and elevate to position the hand in front of a particular bin containing the desired cartridge. The arrangement is sometimes called a xe2x80x9csiloxe2x80x9d arrangement, borrowing a term from the farming industry. The data cartridges may be optical data disks, tape cartridges or magnetic disc cartridges, depending on the type of recording apparatus involved. Typically, the data cartridges are data tape cartridges and the drive is a tape drive.
When the manipulating arm is properly positioned opposite a desired bin or cartridge slot in the desired column, the arm automatically extends and the hand grips the cartridge. The arm retracts, pulling the cartridge out of the bin. The arm then rotates, elevates, and moves the hand in or out to position the gripped cartridge into a cartridge drive apparatus such as a tape drive so that the data on the cartridge may be read or appropriately changed as required by the host computer system. When the operations requiring the cartridge to be in the drive are completed, the host computer then directs the manipulating arm to replace the cartridge in its assigned bin and then proceed with obtaining a next cartridge, if needed.
A CCD camera located on the hand periodically senses the location of the hand in order to precisely position the hand and provide location information feedback to the manipulator controller. This camera also has a linear array of LEDs arranged to project a line of red light to illuminate the tape cartridge bin markers as well as the identifying bar code labels on the cartridges. Since the LEDs and the camera are typically maintained on at all times, much of the electronics circuitry for camera control and signal processing is mounted on the hand with the camera. This component mass must be elevated, translated and rotated as part of the robot manipulator apparatus.
One of the byproducts of these data cartridge handling libraries is the production of unwanted noise. This noise, in particular, includes electromagnetic radiation (EMR) noise which can adversely affect other components and/or systems located nearby, such as peripheral devices, computers, video monitors, etc. Consequently, the cartridge libraries are typically shielded to prevent escape of the EMR or at least minimize the transmission of EMR.
One of the prime sources of unwanted EMR in these library systems originates with the electronic components located on the hand itself. Therefore significant amounts of material are utilized on the hand to effectively shield the surrounding environment from the EMR. This increases the size and mass of the hand and therefore the manipulator arm strength and mass must be appropriately sized in order to overcome inertial forces and produce the desired movements in the desired time periods in order to optimally minimize the time required for a xe2x80x9cpickxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cputxe2x80x9d operation to be performed. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.
The present invention is a system and method for use in a data cartridge handling library for reducing the emissions of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from the data cartridge handling library. The method basically involves turning on the positioning camera located on the manipulator hand in the library silo only when an anticipated desired bin location is approached during an audit operation.
More particularly, the method in accordance with the present invention comprises storing cartridges in tape handling library storage bins, turning on the manipulator camera, performing an audit of all of the cartridges in the storage bins with the manipulator hand, storing the bin location coordinates for each bin containing a cartridge along with cartridge identification data in a database, turning off the camera, and subsequently retrieving cartridges from the bins by utilizing the bin location coordinates.
These and various other features as well as advantages which characterize the present invention will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.